Josh Bivens and Andrew Fieldhouse of the Economic Policy Institute estimate that the employment impact of rescinding the payroll tax holiday will be larger than the impact of letting all the Bush tax cuts expire.
Slate
November 16, 2012
The Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, signed into law at the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, provides assistance to long-term unemployed workers who have exhausted their state-level unemployment assistance eligibility. The program’s expiration is part of the looming “fiscal cliff” that hits at the end of the year, and though the fiscal cliff discussions have thus far focused on the Bush tax cuts, EPI found that the unemployment extension would provide a bigger boost to economic growth and create more jobs than an extension of the high-income Bush tax rates:
Spending $30 billion on unemployment insurance extensions in 2013 would increase consumer spending and expand GDP by an estimated $48 billion, raising our $15.8 trillion GDP by roughly 0.3 percent. This increase in economic activity would translate into roughly 400,000 jobs. In comparison, continuing the upper-income Bush-era tax cuts in 2013 would cost $52 billion—nearly 75 percent more than continuing the UI extensions—and generate just 102,000 jobs, nearly 75 percent fewer jobs than the number created by continuing the UI extensions.
Think Progress
November 16, 2012
There is also one more stinger, according to the Economic Policy Institute. If unemployment insurance benefits are not extended, it will cost the nation hundreds of thousands of jobs:
Spending $30 billion on unemployment benefit extensions in 2013 would increase consumer spending and expand GDP by an estimated $48 billion, raising our $15.8 trillion GDP by roughly 0.3 percent. This increase in economic activity would translate into roughly 400,000 jobs. In comparison, continuing the upper-income Bush-era tax cuts in 2013 would cost $52 billion—nearly 75 percent more than continuing the UI extensions—and generate just 102,000 jobs, nearly 75 percent fewer jobs than the number created by continuing the UI extensions.
Daily Kos
November 16, 2012
“Long-term unemployed workers, who are almost by definition cash-strapped, are likely to immediately spend their unemployment benefits,” the Economic Policy Institute’s Lawrence Mishel and Heidi Shierholz write. “Unemployment benefits spent on rent, groceries, and other necessities increase economic activity, and that increased economic activity saves and creates jobs throughout the economy.”
The Huffington Post
November 16, 2012
Suzy is right. The term “fiscal crisis,” which is getting used interchangeably with “fiscal cliff,” is confusing. “Fiscal slope” isn’t much better, and “fiscal obstacle course” is, with respect to my friends at EPI, absolutely not going to happen.
Washington Post
November 13, 2012
Data on unpaid internships are difficult to find, but surveys tell us that taking an unpaid internship doesn’t lead to better job placement than going straight into one’s first job. According to Ross Eisenbrey of the Economic Policy Institute, unpaid internships don’t lead to higher starting salaries, either. Instead of giving recent college grads a leg up, unpaid internships may put them at a disadvantage: Rather than hiring grads who have been trying to stay afloat during the recession, employers hire newer, more recent graduates.
The American Prospect
November 13, 2012
“There’s a lot of mobilization going on to try to prevent any cuts in social insurance benefits,” said Larry Mishel, president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “I’m hoping they don’t go back to what they were offering up in 2011.”
The Washington Post
November 13, 2012
But the case for NAFTA isn’t settled. A recent report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that the treaty has cost the U.S. jobs. The U.S.’ trade deficit with Mexico has cost the U.S. nearly 700,000 jobs as of 2010, according to the report.
The Huffington Post
November 13, 2012
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank, this has historically been true. The higher number of African Americans working in public sector employment has meant higher rates of job loss due to the economic recession, the think tank reports.
US News and World Report
November 13, 2012
America has added 5 million jobs since February 2010, when employment hit its Great Recession low. But the nation still needs to add another 9 million jobs just to get back to pre-recession unemployment levels, according to data crunched by the Economic Policy Institute.
CNNMoney
November 13, 2012